Poyatos

A village above the Escabas

Poyatos lies in Serranía Alta (upper Serranía), at 1,240 metres, on a slope above the Escabas ravine, on the Natural Park’s edge. It is medieval in origin. Access follows the river from Cañamares, through Estrecho del Infierno and Fuertescusa, or comes from Las Majadas along the Hosquillo road to Gustavo Torner’s Monumento a la Madera, where the road divides towards the Cuervo source or Poyatos.

The old centre and its square

Entry is through the Arco del Concejo, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, the old town gate. Behind lies the square, with a fountain, the Renaissance town hall and its timber balcony, the smithy’s wall and the Gothic and Renaissance church of Santa María Magdalena. The houses of Bishop Don Miguel and Corral de la Mesta also remain. Together they form the Poyatos historic ensemble.

Outside the centre are the Roman fountain and bridges over the Escabas, such as the Barbazoso bridge, a single-span bridge of medieval origin.

What trades and memory tell

Pine logs floated down the Escabas on the spring waters to the Guadiela and Tagus: The gancheros of the Escabas and Guadiela.

The bishop who confirmed St John of God

Around 1490 Miguel Muñoz was born in Poyatos, son of Alonso Sánchez Muñoz and Catalina Guijarro. A Cuenca canon visiting the parish noticed how bright the boy was and gave him a scholarship at his college in Salamanca. He became a doctor of Canon and Civil Law, judge at the Granada Chancery, member of the Council of the Inquisition, bishop of Tuy in 1540, president of the Valladolid Chancery in 1547 and bishop of Cuenca from 1549. In Granada, tradition says, he confirmed a man who had no surname and gave him «de Dios» (of God): St John of God, whom he also clothed in the habit his order still wears. In Cuenca, every Holy Saturday he paid debtors’ debts and freed them from prison, and ended his sermons saying «no sabemos más; perdonadnos, que si más supiéramos, más os dijéramos» (we know no more; forgive us, for if we knew more, we would tell you more). He died in Valladolid in 1553 and is buried in the main chapel of Cuenca cathedral.

In his village he rebuilt the church in Gothic style with Renaissance details; the apse, transept and sacristy remain from that time, with his coat of arms at the sacristy entrance. He founded a chapel for his family and a communal grain store of a thousand fanegas of wheat so that Poyatos would not go hungry in bad years.

The last electricity mill

Around 1925 a generator was installed at the Molino Nuevo or Molino de Abajo, beside the Escabas, bringing electricity to the village. It was the last of Serranía Alta’s small power stations: it stopped milling in the 1950s, the Town Council bought it in 1965 and it continued generating well into the 1980s, when Poyatos joined the grid. In 1982 writer José Serrano Belinchón described a half-dark village, with bulbs glowing like little oil lamps and a television in the bar whose picture was barely visible; the mayor complained that once all the village televisions were switched on, nothing could be seen. Only the mill’s ruins remain.

The Cascada de la Virgen

Beside the Barbazoso bridge, restored a few years ago, a tributary stream of the Escabas cuts between limestone, pools and small drops. Above, the Cascada de la Virgen takes its name from tufa shaped like a Virgin with an open mantle; there is no associated legend or pilgrimage. Behind the sheet of water, according to guide Fernando Carreras, is a cave with stalactites, stalagmites and small lakes. It carries little water for most of the year; with snowmelt or heavy rain the fall grows and the stream must not be crossed.

Plan your visit

The village centre takes an hour; Barbazoso bridge and the Escabas gorge fill a morning. Poyatos is within the Serranía de Cuenca Starlight Tourist Destination: it is worth staying until dark.

Before you travel

At this altitude it turns cool even in summer and snows in winter. The road runs between the slope and the ravine: check its condition before driving up.

Combine with

Fresneda de la Sierra is 8.6 km away in a straight line and Santa María del Val 9 km.